On the 5th of July 2017, Mark spoke to and supported the Private Members Bill - Statutes Amendment (Decriminalisation of Sex Work) Bill 2017.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: I will be very brief. I did not speak at the second reading but I want to put on the record my support for this bill. In a nutshell, I have been persuaded by the submissions of women. Even last night, with the Hon. John Dawkins, the Hon. John Gazzola and the Hon. John Darley we hosted an event for White Ribbon, and whilst the people attending the White Ribbon event were overwhelmingly men—as they should be—a number of women at that event came up to me and said, 'Mark, I hope you guys are going to pass this decriminalisation bill tomorrow.'

The groups I want to thank are the Zonta Club of Adelaide Flinders Incorporated, the Working Women's Centre SA Incorporated and the YWCA of Adelaide, as women's groups. We also have Soroptimist International, another women's group. Other groups whose submissions have been helpful to me include Relationships Australia, and we have also recently had some material from the Law Society. I will make a contribution when we get to the amendments and to some of the clauses perhaps, but for now I want to put on the record that I will be supporting the bill.